Various scenes from Winnipeg, Manitoba

I attended the Canadian Society for Immunology conference in Winnipeg Manitoba. I learned a lot about vaccination, infectious diseases, and quite a few other things, and I was invited to give a talk in Montreal, and to participate on a new grant with a professor from U Sherbrooke. And the food was fantastic too! I had a few extra days to paint, and found time around the conference schedule to get out and explore Winnipeg. 

This painting shows the incredible Museum for Human Rights, at first I was unaware of what the building was, and so painted it with the ideas of its sweeping glass and sandstone facade. It must be about 20 stories tall, and then some with the spire. Sandstone was a common theme, many buildings in Winnipeg are made from a yellow ochre, raw sienna brick and stone... a toasty yellow colour. They also spread sand in the winter of the same tone, which further created a yellowish tint on many scenes.  

Canadian Museum for Human Rights, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, April 2026

Just off of Main street on Pacific avenue there is an interesting building with a two-tone blue facade and red detailing. Looking it up on google maps, its a marshal arts club, and used to have a restaurant on the bottom floor. There was a bit of graffiti on the side wall. Wandering up to the north part of Winnipeg gave a much different vibe than the downtown core where the hotel and convention center were located. There were many people out and about here, socializing and seeming to have fun, or a little too much fun maybe. The city has a lot of social services around here too, like medical, food, help centers. 

Ching Wu Athletic Association, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, April 2026 

Another old industrial building turned condo, this is the Telegram building on Albert street. Now its a collection of fancy shops and what appears to be loft condos. Winnipeg still has quite a few old industrial buildings that seemed to be functional, they also had many large parking lots and open spaces. I got the impression Montreal used to be like this, but now there are hardly any parking lots left, and the old industrial buildings have been converted to condos. 

Telegram building, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, April 2026 

The Dominion News building on Portage avenue is no longer a news building, it seemed to be converted into various shops. The architecture includes a green copper dome, ornate stone work, and Roman pillars make for a striking corner. Instead of realism I went for expressionism here, the paint was flowing and the lines were dancing. I have to admit, I painted fast at night in Winnipeg, unsure of the safety levels here, although nothing untoward happened. 

Dominion News building, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, April 2026 

More of the old industrial, this large warehouse-factory complex used to be a candy and nut manufacturer. Winnipeg obviously takes care of their heritage properties, you see them all over the city. In this case, they preserved the painted signage... Nutty Club Candy Nuts, although I simplified the design in the painting, and removed a layer, it was actually one story taller in real life. Its easily viewable on Google maps on the corner of Westbrook st. and Pioneer av. In real life, it had an amazing patina up close, paint over rust, and wood structures that looked to be well over 100 years old. I embellished the colours here to make the walls look like cotton candy. 

Nutty Club, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, April 2026 

The Forks area is a spectacular feature in Winnipeg, and likely the main reason the city exists in the first place. Long time a gathering area for indigenous people, it became a fort and trading post, then came the train and continued growth. There are many monuments all around this area (including the human rights museum), memorials for missing and murdered indigenous women, the residential school atrocities, and the interaction between colonial and indigenous people. There was also a large astrological installment, in line with Stonehenge, it is designed to spot constellations and sun/moon positions, it was called Odena celebration center. This painting shows part of the children's museum, with a small pile of snow remaining, and an iconic Winnipeg lime-green dumpster in the foreground. Virtually all the dumpsters in town were the same lime colour.  

The Forks Children's museum, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, April 2026  

Big blue sky in Winnipeg

There was a big blue sky in Winnipeg today, surprisingly sunny with a strong breeze. The city is surrounded to the south and east with wide spread industrial buildings, parking lots and the rail line. This scene is in the historic downtown, reminiscent of Montreal. Some Persian protestors gathered here and went for a march along the wide sidewalks. No cops escorting them! It was peaceful but a local person yelled at them. I made a lot of paintings today, now the conference starts late afternoon. Time for some immunology. 

Oxford Hotel, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, April 2026

Winnipeg Spring

Here is one of the many paintings I did today in downtown Winnipeg, it shows a popular shop. Using a Van Gogh style I captured the spirit of the scene. There were a lot of good scenes along the Red River, and around Forks Park where the rivers converge. The weather was cool and windy and mostly overcast. 

PJD POT 26, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, April 2026

Waiting for LUFA, last paintings before trip

Waiting for the LUFA vegetables after work, I rode out to the ridge line on Benny Hill behind the mega hospital. You can walk up a narrow, tree-lined dirt path to get great views of downtown. Somebody installed a vigilante park bench here, it was painted bright blue and had rust on it, no way it was a city installation. They always put a concrete slab underneath, and the benches are made of more durable material than this. 

Blue bench Benny Hill, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Behind the hospital there is an enormous grassy flats, probably a water reservoir underneath else it would have been developed. It could also be hospital land they are holding on to for a future expansion, who knows. This view looking due north shows the commuter train going by with some housing, and Mount Royal in the background.  

Commuter train grass flats, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Still no vegetable delivery (they text you when it arrives), I caught this view of the commuter train rumbling by, almost head-on from the bike path. I painted it from memory... when it passed, I just memorized the angles and some details. I made the grill look like an angry face. 

Commuter train head on, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

You think Quebec would have learned their lesson after Lac-Mégantic 's disaster when a train derailed, but they continue to build housing next to train tracks. This one is right beside the tracks, which are unseen to the right. As they build the condo, it has a red layer on top where they pour concrete for new levels, then the green insulation and window frames rising up from the bottom. Next they will lay bricks and install windows. 

New condos red and green, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Finally the delivery arrived at Trenholme park. I did one last painting of a poor old tree on its last days. The trunk was split and branches looked sad, that orange spray-paint is the way the city marks trees to be cut down. They plant new ones eventually, these trees are probably from the mid 20th century. 

Tree last days, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026  

Palette Cleansers, going to Winnipeg

With a trip to Winnipeg starting tomorrow, I made some extensive palette cleansing and loaded up the palettes for some location painting. The main reason for the trip is the Canadian Immunology meeting, and as usual I will make a few paintings here and there in Winnipeg. The weather forecast is cold and nasty with wind rain and snow... so pretty much what I'm used to, although it will be considerably nicer back in Montreal. This abstract painting was done as I cleaned the yellow and earth sections of the palette, it ended up looking like a blinged-out totem chimpanzee or something.

Berried in Earth, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, April 2026

This was done with the cool section of my palette and the high chroma area (yellow to red). You can see a paint-out of my normal palette set-up here, its organized into earth colours top left, dark shadow colours top middle, green range top right, high chroma colours bottom left, and a blob of black paint bottom right. 

Leaf Table Sunset, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, April 2026 

Life is a highway(s)

Tom Cochrane had that big hit in the 90's 'Life is a Highway'. Well, here are a bunch of highways, so, life is several highways! As usual I changed the main sign to have my initials and the year 26. The green on the sign is mostly phthalo green yellow shade (PG36) , while the early spring grass is done with a mix of earth paints raw sienna (PBr7) and yellow ochre (PY43), mixed with the PG36 green. Burnt umber provides some dark areas of earth. I like how the bright green plays off the olive earthy greens. 

Highways signs early Spring, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

From the new Falaise path, one can see the train tracks, highway, and even the giant brown mountain of crud through the landscaping. Each year the landscaping gets thicker and taller, it will soon be a dense forest with full sun and enough rain. Those red lines are a kind of shrub that has bright red branches fanning out from the ground. I mixed the incredible burnt yellow ochre (PR102) from Daniel Smith, with pyrol red (PR254) to get that shade of red. The pine trees are diluted perylene green (PBk31).

Falaise path train and highway, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

In the distance you see the downtown Montreal skyline and the white point from the st Jacques Decarie overpass bridge. Then you have the curving shapes of the Falaise path, left, the train tracks, middle, and the highways on the right. Getting the curves right was key here, and preserving the white contrasts on the highway. 

Falaise path tracks highways, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026  

Mega Hospital, columnar oaks

At the newly renovated corner of Courcelle and Notre Dame in Ville st Henri, there is a large triangle of grass with a monument and a wall mural. Looking west gives this gloomy view of the Mega Hospital up on Glen Hill. Colours and shapes were embellished to give that sense of a pile of Lego bricks. 

Mega Hospital gloom, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Looking east and there are a row of squiggly oaks, they are tall and narrow with 'frizzy' looking branches and a few dry leaves left over from last season. Technically these are called columnar oaks, they are tall and thin like a column. On the right you see the edge of the mural in turquoise, the mural shows an indigenous woman with a sign 'White Supremacy is Killing Me'. Graffiti writers have defaced the lower part of the mural. 

Squiggly oaks horizontal, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Here is the same view on the vertical, I tried overlapping the trees on the graffiti and things got a little too busy. I did the horizontal one next, omitting the graffiti and emphasizing the trees more. 

Squiggly oaks vertical, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026